This biographical sketch is adapted from LDS
Biographical Encyclopedia, by Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p.181 and from
The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, by Lyndon W. Cook;
p.11
Lovingly known to the Saints as "Father Smith," Joseph
Smith, senior, the first Presiding Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, and father of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was born
July 12, 1771, in Topsfield, Essex county, Mass., he was the second son
of Asahel Smith and Mary Duty.
Joseph Smith, sen., removed with his father to Tunbridge,
Orange county, Vermont, in 1791, and assisted in clearing a large farm
of a heavy growth of timber. He married Lucy, daughter of Solomon and Lydia
Mack, Jan. 24, 1796, by whom he had ten children, namely: Alvin, born Feb.
11, 1798; Hyrum, born Feb. 9, 1800; Sophronia, born May 16, 1803; Joseph,
born Dec. 23, 1805; Samuel Harrison, born March 13, 1808; Ephraim, born
March 13, 1810; William, born March 13, 1811; Catherine, born July 28,
1812; Don Carlos, born March 25, 1816; and Lucy, born July 18, 1824. [Actually,
there were eleven children. This list omits an unnamed male child, born
before Alvin.] At his marriage he owned a handsome farm in Tunbridge.
In 1802 he rented it [out] and engaged in mercantile
business, and soon after embarked in a venture of ginseng to send to China,
and was swindled out of the entire proceeds by the shipmaster and agent;
he was consequently obliged to sell his farm and all of his effects to
pay his debts. About the year 1816 he removed to Palmyra, Wayne county,
New York, bought a farm and cleared two hundred acres, which he lost in
consequence of not being able to pay the last installment of the purchase
money at the time it was due. This was the case with a great number of
farmers in New York who had cleared land under similar contracts. He afterwards
moved to Manchester, Ontario county, New York, procured a comfortable home
with sixteen acres of land, where he lived until he removed to Kirtland,
Ohio.
He was the first person who received his son Joseph's
testimony after he had seen the angel, and exhorted him to be faithful
and diligent to the message he had received. He later saw the Golden Plates
and became one of the eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon. He
was baptized April 6, 1830. In August, 1830, in company with his son Don
Carlos, he took a mission to St. Lawrence county, New York, touching on
his route at several of the Canadian ports, where he distributed a few
copies of the Book of Mormon, visited his father, brothers and sisters
residing in St. Lawrence county, bore testimony to the truth, which resulted
eventually in all the family coming into the Church, excepting his brother
Jesse and sister Susan.
He removed with his family to Kirtland in 1831, where
he was ordained to the High Priesthood June 3, 1831, by Lyman
Wight. He was ordained a Patriarch and president of the High priesthood,
under the hands of Joseph Smith, Oliver
Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick
G. Williams, Dec. 18, 1833, and was chosen a member of the first High
Council, organized in Kirtland, Ohio, Feb. 17, 1834.
In 1836 he traveled in company with his brother John
2,400 miles in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire,
visiting the branches of the Church in those States, and bestowing patriarchal
blessings on several hundred persons, preaching the gospel to all who would
hear, and baptizing many. They arrived at Kirtland Oct. 2, 1836. During
the persecutions in Kirtland, in 1837, he was made a prisoner, but fortunately
obtained his liberty. At this perilous time, he was appointed assistant
counselor to First Presidency on September 3, 1837. After a very
tedious journey in the spring and summer of 1838, he arrived at Far West,
Mo.
After his sons, Hyrum and Joseph, were thrown into
the Missouri jails by the mob, he fled from under the infamous exterminating order
issued by the despicable Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, and made his escape in midwinter to Quincy,
Ill., from whence he removed to Commerce in the spring of 1839, and thus
became one of the founders of Nauvoo. The exposures he suffered brought
on consumption, of which he died Sept. 14, 1840, aged 69 years, two months
and two days.
He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, was very straight, and
remarkably well proportioned. His ordinary weight was about two hundred
lbs., and he was very strong and active. In his young days he was famed
as a wrestler, and, like Jacob of old, he never wrestled with but one man
whom he could not throw. He was one of the most benevolent of men, opening
his house to all who were destitute. While at Quincy, Ill., he fed hundreds
of the poor Saints who were fleeing from the Missouri persecutions, although
he had arrived there penniless himself.
